Chapter One: The Tomorrow They Rejected

At 2:17 a.m., only two kinds of light remained on the twenty-seventh floor of Starbridge Advertising. One came from the city beyond the windows, where ten thousand screens fought for the eyes of anyone still awake. The other came from Chen Mo's monitor, frozen on a black concept car bursting out of a tunnel. The silver prism on its hood belonged to Obsidian Motors. The sixty-second spot was called *Through Tomorrow*, booked for the last commercial break before halftime at the Super Bowl. The media slot alone cost fourteen million dollars. Chen Mo's job was to cut those sixty seconds until the client agreed to pay. In other words, Creative Director Tang Xiao would call it his work at the victory party, while Chen stayed behind to fix everything